Turner, Smith take blame for Bolts' bungling start

Norv Turner has been Chargers head coach for 60 games. There have been some terrific highs, and some lows Jules Verne couldn’t have imagined. But there’s been nothing on Turner’s résumé to match Sunday’s calamity vs. the one-horned Rams.

Surely, there have been greater disappointments than the humiliating Beat Me in St. Louis. The playoff loss to the Jets. The January asphyxiations in Pittsburgh and New England. But this, this was a total defeat to a bad team, so it wasn’t just one football engine that failed, as special teams did in the three previous crashes. All three did.

“I think you’re right,” Turner says.

And no one is more surprised, not only at the team’s 2-4 start, but how it’s played, than the coach.

“Absolutely,” says Turner, which makes sense, in that he said going in this could be his best team.

It isn’t. In so many ways it isn’t. And it’s reached the point where Turner isn’t passing the buck. It’s his problem.

“I’ve never said expectations are too high, because they’re always too high,” he says. “Hey, I’m accountable, and you know how I feel about it — it’s all on me.”

Everybody has an opinion as to what’s gone wrong. It’s Turner (it’s always Turner). It’s General Manager A.J. Smith missing on player evaluation (it’s always Smith, too, joined at the blame with Norv). It’s a lack of preparation.

It’s a combination. As for preparation, I find it hard to believe this team went to St. Louis thinking it was going to kick a tomato can after its road performances in Kansas City, Seattle and Oakland. These players, these coaches, these football people, this ownership, couldn’t have gone to Missouri thinking they were too good to beat anybody. Could they?

I don’t believe Turner has lost this locker room. His guys are playing, they’re just playing like crap.

“There’s going to be nine million theories,” Turner says. “I’m not going to deal in generalities. It comes down to guys knowing what they’re doing and being accountable.”

That must involve Norv and his staff, including defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, who didn’t gang up on the run late in St. Louis when people in Mongolia knew the Rams weren’t going to allow a rookie quarterback to screw things up near the end. It was awful defensive strategy.

But the players also must be obligated. People say they were flat. Manure. You’re flat when you’re not good enough, when you’re not doing things right. This team wasn’t flat and hasn’t been flat. It’s been overrated, not good enough to beat clubs we all thought it would take with its junior varsity.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Turner says. “That’s the question (were you prepared?) you get. A lot of players executed exactly like we had in practice. We were prepared.”

Some obviously were not. Reminds me of what John McKay said when asked in Tampa Bay what he thought of his team’s execution. “I’m in favor of it.”

Wonder if they’ll be prepared when New England comes to town this Sunday, signaling the end of the éclair portion of their schedule. They not only haven’t met a good team, they have yet to play a terrific quarterback. That ends with Tom Brady.

So, so, so many different things have gone wrong. But it’s up to the players now. Turner insists it isn’t a leadership issue, and I don’t know if it is, either. They just aren’t good. They may not be panicking, but they are pressing.

“I’m responsible for everything,” Smith says. “It’s my direction and plan I give to ownership. No question, it’s on me. It’s the general manager’s responsibility. With that, I’m extremely disappointed. We’re just not playing well, and I have to find answers as to why.

“We say we’re going to fix it, but we’ve been saying it for a while, and meanwhile losses are piling up. If anybody else in our division was breaking out, we’d be in serious, serious trouble — and it appears we will be if we don’t straighten things out.

“We have outstanding individual players and that’s good, but we’re not a complete team, and if you don’t have a complete team you’re not likely to win. I thought we would look like a playoff team, but that’s something we haven’t looked like.”

According to Smith, all bodily functions have failed.

“We talk about special teams, but it’s moving around a bit — we’re not making plays on offense or defense, either. Eventually, you run out of time. It’s not the case yet, but it soon will be.”

The Chargers have bungled and stumbled through the bakery portion of their schedule. Now they’re walking into a butcher shop.

The NFL’s carnivores, which the Chargers once were, will feast on the weak. Bad enough the vegans already have.